Servant Leadership, Trust, and the Organizational Commitment of Public Sector Employees in China

Main author: Miao, Qing
Other authors: Newman, Alexander
Schwarz, Gary
Xu, Lin
Format: Journal Article           
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id eprints-21209
recordtype eprints
institution SOAS, University of London
collection SOAS Research Online
language English
language_search English
description Servant leaders strive selflessly and altruistically to assist others before themselves, work to develop their followers to their greatest potential, and seek to benefit the wider community. This paper examines the trust-based mechanisms by which servant leadership influences organizational commitment in the Chinese public sector, using data from a survey of civil servants. Quantitative analysis shows that servant leadership strongly influences affective and normative commitment, while having no impact on continuance commitment. Furthermore, we find that affective trust rather than cognitive trust is the mechanism by which servant leadership induces higher levels of commitment. Our findings suggest that in a time of decreasing confidence levels in public leaders, servant leadership behavior may be used to reestablish trust and create legitimacy for the Chinese civil service.
format Journal Article
author Miao, Qing
author_facet Miao, Qing
Newman, Alexander
Schwarz, Gary
Xu, Lin
authorStr Miao, Qing
author_letter Miao, Qing
author2 Newman, Alexander
Schwarz, Gary
Xu, Lin
author2Str Newman, Alexander
Schwarz, Gary
Xu, Lin
title Servant Leadership, Trust, and the Organizational Commitment of Public Sector Employees in China
publisher Wiley
publishDate 2014
url https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/21209/